A lay panel heading an investigation into sexual abuse in the US Roman Catholic Church has accused the country's bishops of manipulating it and backsliding on promises, according to a letter made public on Tuesday.
The letter was one of several between the National Review Board and various bishops posted on the Web site of the National Catholic Reporter, which said it had obtained and verified them.
The review panel, headed by Anne Burke, a judge in Chicago, criticized the administrative committee of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops for deciding to delay action on some key issues until a meeting in November.
The delays, among other things, would push back a second round of audits to see how well dioceses are complying with new measures designed to protect children from clerical abuse.
The panel's letter complained that the bishops were considering the delay but hid this from the panel at the time of a high-profile Feb. 27 news conference so that it would not become public.
At that time it was disclosed in two reports that more than 10,600 children claimed to have been molested by priests since 1950 in an epidemic of child sexual abuse involving at least 4 percent of US Roman Catholic clergy.
The review panel was formed by the bishops in 2002 after the abuse scandal had shaken the US church to its foundations.
"It is hard to reach any other conclusion than that the failure to tell the [panel] of these matters in a timely fashion was to make sure that they did not come up in any discussions with the national media on Feb. 27," the letter said.
"In short we were manipulated ... we are very disheartened by this apparent decision to go back to `business as usual,'" the letter added. "To place everything on hold for eight months will undoubtedly have serious adverse repercussions both within and without the Church."
The letter added that delaying action was a "backslide" that "will delay necessary healing and reopen the wounds of deception, manipulation and control -- all the false ideals that produced the scandal."
The panel also warned people had given the bishops the benefit of the doubt because it looked like they were turning the corner. If that turned out to not to be the case, "the wounded people-in-the-pews will find this reprehensible," it said.
The panel said it would be impossible to produce a meaningful annual report if new compliance audits were not performed.
The National Catholic Reporter said it had verified that the letter was sent on behalf of all 13 board members under Burke's signature. It was sent on March 30 to Bishop Wilton Gregory, head of the Bishops Conference.
A Bishops Conference spokesman had no immediate comment. The National Catholic Reporter said, however, that Gregory announced recently that the bishops would consider the audits issue at a closed spiritual retreat next month.
The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, a victims' advocacy group, said it had "seen widespread backsliding by American bishops and this news confirms our worst suspicions and fears."
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